The Mystery of the Broken Heart
by Professor Snaglefoompus
Summary: While at Thornton Hall, Nancy makes a phone call home and makes a horrible discovery.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This takes place, during _Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall_.

* * *

Nancy Drew yawned, as she walked out of the cemetery. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was 12:05 AM.

_I should get to bed,_ she thought, feeling a little disappointed that she still hadn't solved the mystery that night. As she headed toward the main building, Nancy pulled out her cell phone and called her friend Bess.

Bess picked up the phone on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Bess," Nancy said. "I thought I'd give you a progress report, before I went to sleep."

"Great, I've been waiting for you to call," Bess said. "I've been waiting on pins and needles for you to solve this mystery."

"Have you figured out who killed Charlotte yet?" a male voice asked.

Nancy stopped dead in her tracks. "Ned?"

"Yeah, it's me."

Nancy was very careful with her next question. "Bess, why is Ned at your house, after eleven o'clock?"

There was a slight pause. "Nance, Ned is hanging out with me, while everyone else is out of town. I told you that."

"He was there last night, too. And the night before." Nancy clenched her fists. "_How_ much time have you two been spending together?"

"It's not what it seems like," Ned said quickly.

"Really? Because it seems like my boyfriend and my best friend are dating behind my back!" Nancy said.

"What? _No!_" Bess said. "We're just having a movie marathon together, that's all! Friends do that all the time!"

"Yeah, I was going to go home, as soon as we're done with _Eclipse_," Ned said. "There's only about fifteen minutes left."

"You're watching _Twilight_ together?" Nancy asked. "How many _other_ romance movies have you two watched?"

"Well, I don't like those action films that Ned owns, so I usually force him to watch romcoms," Bess said. "I think we've seen about five of them-"

"I hate you," Nancy said. She hung up her phone, then threw it against the nearest tree.


	2. Chapter 2

Ned put down the phone, then turned to look at Bess. "That could have gone better," he said.

Bess shrugged. "Well, what were we supposed to do?" she asked. "We couldn't tell Nancy that we're planning her surprise birthday party."

Ned closed his eyes and pinched his forehead. "Yes, but you didn't have to say we've been watching tons of romance movies together!"

"Sorry!" Bess said. "You know me. I tend to babble when I'm frightened! Or nervous! Or excited, or...well, okay, maybe I babble all the time."

"Now I have to figure out how to get Nancy to talk to me again," Ned said.

Bess wrapped her arm around Ned's shoulders and pouted. "Poor Neddy-Weddy. I'm sorry."

"Okay, not helping!" Ned said, standing up quickly.

Bess giggled. "Come on, Ned. Nancy can't _seriously_ think that we're a couple, right? She knows us better than that."

"Yeah, well, she just hung up on us," Ned said. "And she sounded really mad. I'm gonna have to do some major damage control here."

"And that's why I prefer being single..." Bess said.

* * *

Nancy picked up the pieces of her phone and stomped into Thornton Hall. Even though it was past midnight in Georgia, she was feeling incredibly energized.

Throwing open the front door, Nancy saw the ghost of Charlotte Thornton, hovering above the stairs. Singing her spooky song about ladybugs, Charlotte slowly turned towards Nancy and floated closer.

"I don't have time for this," Nancy said. She ran up the stairs and tackled Charlotte's ghost. Nancy flew right through the apparition and hit her head on the top stairs.

"Ow," Nancy said. Knowing that the ghost wasn't really there made her feel a little better, but how could she explain its presence? Complicated holographic technology? Hallucinations? Exhaustion?

"Stupid ghost," Nancy said, stumbling up the stairs and into her sleeping bag. "Stupid Ned. Stupid Bess. Stupid everything."

Nancy tried to fall asleep, but she couldn't stop thinking about the fact that her two best friends had betrayed her. How long had the two been dating? Did they start when Nancy was out of town? Did Ned think of Bess, whenever he was kissing Nancy? Plagued with these thoughts, Nancy wasn't able to sleep for another two hours.


	3. Chapter 3

Ned decided _not_ to visit Bess the next day, and it took approximately twenty minutes for Bess to become bored out of her mind. She tried drawing, she tried cooking, and she even tried messing around on the Internet, but nothing worked.

Halfway through the day, Bess got a phone call from her cousin, George Fayne. Happy for something to do, Bess answered the phone. "Hey, George! How's New York?"

_"What's wrong with you, Bess?! What are you thinking?!"_

Bess had to hold the phone away from her ear, afraid that her eardrums would break. "I take it you heard what happened."

"I thought you and Ned were planning Nancy's surprise party!" George said.

"We are!" Bess said. "But we couldn't tell _Nancy_ that, so we just sort of...went with the worst cover story ever."

"Wait, seriously?" George asked. "I mean, _seriously? _Why would you pick secret boyfriend as a cover story?"

"What makes you think it was me?" Bess huffed. "It could have been Ned's idea!"

"..."

"Fine, it was me. But I couldn't think of anything else at the time, and Nancy was jumping to conclusions!"

"I just got off the phone with Nancy," George said. "She's really mad, but she's also kind of...weird."

"Weird? What do you mean?"

"I mean, Nancy didn't sound like her normal self. It was like her brain was underwater or something. At first, I thought it was because of you and Ned, but I get the feeling there's more to it than that."

Bess shivered. "You...you don't think the ghost has somehow gotten to Nancy, do you?"

"No. There's no such thing as ghosts."

"Sure, _you're _not afraid of ghosts, but not me! I need Nancy as my ghost protection shield! And the shield doesn't work if the ghosts are making Nancy act all crazy! George, we have to do something!"

"I think the only thing you need to do at this point is tell Nancy the truth. The last thing she needs right now is a distraction."

"Yeah, I know..." Bess said. "But I don't know what to say to Nancy. Besides, Ned said he'd take care of everything."

"You'd better hope he does," George said. "Otherwise, instead of a birthday party, you should be planning a funeral."


	4. Chapter 4

Nancy rubbed her head and she got out of her sleeping bag. Besides for the phone call to George and a quick snack around noon, she had slept all day long. She wasn't sure why Thornton Hall made her so tired during the day.

It was dark outside, and Nancy checked her phone to see that it was a little before 6:00 PM. The phone said she had five saved voicemails from Ned and one from her father. Nancy deleted Ned's voicemails without even listening to them, then she called her father. Mr. Drew was a bit worried that Nancy wouldn't make it back home in time for her birthday, in five days.

After that, Nancy read her text messages. She had three of them, and the first one was from George.

_I called Bess. The boyfriend thing was just one of her stupid jokes. She and Ned are not a couple. Repeat: they are NOT a couple._

Nancy considered it for a moment. Bess _did_ come up with stupid jokes sometimes, but...Nancy wasn't so sure. Pretending to steal a boyfriend was in bad taste, even for Bess.

The second text message was from Henry Bolet, a college student Nancy met while in New Orleans. He had a random question about Nancy's investigation there, a few years ago. The final text message was from Deirdre Shannon.

_Sooo...does this mean Ned is single again?_

"How the heck did _she_ find out?" Nancy cried out loud. Deirdre was Nancy's semi-rival back in River Heights. She had a crush on Ned for as long as Nancy could remember and...

"I don't get it," Nancy said. "I can trust Ned around Deirdre. I can even trust him around Minkie McNab! But I can't trust him around _Bess?_ Something's weird here."

Nancy sighed and tried to put her relationship problems out of her mind. She had a mystery she needed to focus on.

* * *

For the most part, Nancy was able to completely focus on the strange happenings at Thornton Hall. When Nancy started talking with Jessalyn Thornton, however, she cracked completely.

"Did you know Colton's here?" Nancy asked. "He's been talking to another girl named Lexie."

"I don't have time for that," Jessalyn said.

"Well, _make_ time for that!" Nancy said. "Your boyfriend is cheating on you! He's a dirty slob who should be grabbed by his messy hair and his...adorable eyes and...WHY? Why are boys like that? And with Bess, of all people!"

"Nancy, are you-?"

"Well, I'm _going _to figure out what happened," Nancy said. "Was it her fault, or _his_ fault? I guess it doesn't really matter, but I have to know! _I have to know!_"

"Are you feelin' okay?" Jessalyn asked.

"What?" Nancy asked. Then she slapped herself on the forehead. "Oh, right, Charlotte's necklace. I'll get it for you. Don't worry."


	5. Chapter 5

_Why doesn't she return my calls?_ Ned wondered, for the eighth time. He understood that Nancy needed her space at the moment, but it wasn't like her to ignore him. Usually, Nancy met all of her problems head-on.

Ned called Nancy's phone. It rang six times, before going to voicemail. He hung up, instead of leaving another message.

_Okay, Ned, think positive. Maybe she's just busy with the case right now. She'll probably call back, as soon as she's found the missing girl._

_...Either that, or she hates me._

Ned took a moment to figure out what message he wanted to leave for Nancy, then he called again. This time, Nancy answered.

"Thornton Hall is on fire," she said tersely. "This is not a good time for a phone call."

"Nancy!" Ned said. "I've been so—"

"RAUGH!" Nancy shouted, before hanging up the phone. She reset the clock on the left and pulled the lever, only to have it fail. Again.

"Who was that?" Clara asked. Both she and Nancy were currently trapped inside Charlotte's old bedroom, thanks to a fire in the hallway.

"No one you know," Nancy said. "Who changed the clock speeds when I wasn't looking? And why isn't there a fire extinguisher in this house?!"

"This house has been abandoned, ever since Charlotte's death," Clara said. "There's no need to have a fire extinguisher if no one lives here."

"Charlotte died in a fire on this property!" Nancy argued. "You think the insurance company or fire department or _somebody_ would make you put fire extinguishers everywhere!"

The teen detective slammed her fist against the second-from-right clock, which was out of sync with the others. She had no idea why the clocks were working differently during a fire. Of all the times for the clocks to mess up!

Clara started screaming about the fire, which did not help Nancy's concentration. After three minutes or so—Nancy wasn't sure, because the clocks were messed up—the puzzle was solved, and the hidden passageway behind the painting was opened.

"Come on, let's go!" Nancy said, grabbing Clara's wrist.


	6. Chapter 6

The fire burnt Thornton Hall to the ground, as none of the firefighters could arrive on time. Thanks to Nancy's actions, no one was seriously injured, but the leader of the firefighters ordered that everyone be sent to the hospital.

Nancy's trip home was delayed by three days, as she was made a virtual prisoner of Georgia's hospital system. The doctors determined that she and everyone else was suffering from exposure to carbon monoxide, and they wanted to be absolutely sure she was healthy, before releasing her.

Nancy's response to the diagnosis was grim acceptance. If there was carbon monoxide in the air around Thornton Hall, that would explain a lot. It explained why she felt so strange and why her sleeping patterns were off. It would even explain the visions she had of Charlotte's ghost.

But...did they explain what happened with Ned and Bess?

Now that her head was clearer, Nancy had to wonder if she had a legitimate cause for concern. Just because Ned was staying at Bess' house late at night, it didn't mean he was her secret boyfriend. Ned was a lot of things, but he wasn't a liar or a cheater. And Bess was a flirt sometimes, but she never messed around with other girls' boyfriends.

Nancy sighed. She knew this was a conversation she and Ned needed to have, face-to-face. She pulled out her phone and sent Ned a text.

_We need to talk. Can you stop by my house tomorrow?_

* * *

Hannah picked Nancy up from the airport and drove her home. Nancy was usually talkative after solving a case, but this time, she rode in silence. Hannah found it odd, but she didn't say anything.

Nancy sighed as she dragged her luggage up the walkway and into the Drew home. The lights were on, and Nancy was wondering where her father would be when she saw a huge group of people in the living room.

"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANCY!"

"Wha-WHAT?" Nancy said loudly. "But my birthday is two days from now!"

Nancy's father stepped forward to hug his daughter. He was wearing a pink party hat, on top of his usual suit and tie. "Welcome back, Nancy," he said. "You stay here and enjoy your party. I'll take your luggage upstairs."

Nancy looked around the room in surprise. "But how did you prepare this?" she asked.

"Ned and Bess have been planning this party, ever since you left for Georgia," Carson said. "She was the one who forced me to wear this ridiculous hat."

"It looks good on you, Mr. Drew," George said. She was wearing an "I heart NY" t-shirt. "It's great to see you again, Nancy. Did anything interesting happen in the state named after me?"

"Hmmm...let's see," Nancy said, tapping her bottom lip with her finger. "I got trapped inside a burning building, was almost decapitated by a scythe, got attacked by an evil ghost, and ended up in the hospital."

"In other words, it was just an average case for you," George summarized.

"Yeah, pretty much," Nancy agreed. "Except for, you know, the whole Ned and Bess thing."

"Which we're going to resolve right now," George said, grabbing Nancy's arm. She led Nancy to Ned, who was standing next to the sofa. He nervously ran his hand through his hair.

"Hello, Nance," Ned said. "I, um, I got your text. Did you get my voice messages?"

"I did, but I didn't listen to any of them," Nancy said. She paused for a second and said, "Bess, I can see you there."

Bess got up from the sofa that she had been trying to hide behind. "Heh heh...right," Bess said.

"So..._this_ is what you two were up to, when I was gone," she said.

"Yeah..." Bess said. "We couldn't tell you the truth, because it would ruin the surprise! You _love _surprises!"

"I'm sorry we gave you the wrong impression," Ned said. "We only wanted your birthday party to be perfect. Do you forgive us?"

Nancy glared at them for a few seconds, before grabbing Ned and kissing him. Bess squealed in happiness, while George smiled.


End file.
